Byaari film wins National award

Bangalore, March 8 (IANS) The first movie in the Byaari langauge, titled "Byaari" has been jointly named the best film at the 59th National Award announced on Wednesday. The award has been shared with Marati film "Devulu".

Byaari is a language spoken in the coastal Karnataka and also in northern part of Kerala primarily in Kasargod district, which has an intensive Kannadiga population whose mother tongue is Konkani, Tulu and Kannada.

Byaari does not have a script of its own, but is spoken by a significant number of people, mostly Muslims living in the coastal Karnatake Belt, in Mangalore and Ullal segments and in the neighbouring Kasargod district of Kerala.

Byaari language is a mix of Malayalam, Tulu and Urdu.

This is the first film made in Byaari language.

Deals with the exploitation of women and young girls, the film has been directed by Suveeran and produced by T.H. Altaf Hussain, a Mangalore hotelier.

The film was released in Mangalore's Prabhat theatre a few days ago.

Suveeran is happy his maiden directorial venture has received a National Award.

"We shot the entire film with a 16 mm camera and took local artists who had some background in theatre. To get a realistic look for the film, I tried to project the film as naturally as possible shooting in places where there is heavy concentration of Byaaris," Suveeran told IANS.

"Byaaris have their own tradtion, culture and beliefs that are peculiar, and not shared by the other Muslim population living in Karnataka and Kerala. I wanted to highlight on this singualar aspect and present a real story," he added.